


Lapidot Angst Week 2018

by StishStash



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Continuity, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Blood Warning for Chapter 6, Copied From My Own Tumblr, Corruption, Extended Isolation, F/F, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, Kindergarten AU, Lapidot Angst Week 2018, Memory Loss, Moved Works, Nightmares, Offshoot, One Shot, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 15:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17004066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StishStash/pseuds/StishStash
Summary: 7 days of nothing but angst.These are works written for Lapidot Angst Week February 10th, 2018 - February 16th, 2018.This is a move (Because I wasn't able to import) of works originally posted to my Tumblr, Unisex-Muffin, just in case things on Tumblr start heading even more south than they are now. Honestly I should have posted them here to begin with.





	1. Day 1: Nightmare

Oof, not a good start into the week imo. This one isn’t much, it’s more subtle, more of a dull angst. The next ones will be better, I promise.

~~~~~

Peridot woke with a start, a whimper escaping from her mouth. It took her a moment, laying there as a dull, heavy pain filled her chest, to realize. A nightmare...it was only a nightmare.

Instinctively she reached out her hand to wake up Lapis, only to feel the cold tile of the side of the bathtub. This wasn’t the first time this had happened since Lapis had left. Sadly, she reached out of the tub and brought Pumpkin to her. Pumpkin had gotten used to this routine, and snuggled herself under Peridot’s chin, giving her cheek a few licks. Steven used to come in and comfort her too, but that was only the first few times, Peridot had insisted that she was fine and could handle it herself. She wasn’t fine, though, and she couldn’t handle this as well as she wanted to.

She retrieved her tablet, which had lucklily been at Steven’s that fateful day, and began to scroll through pictures of a happier time.

She remembered when it was usually Lapis who would have the nightmares, and it was Peridot who would comfort her. Peridot didn’t necessarily have many nightmares before, as she didn’t usually sleep. Most of the time when Lapis had convinced her to she would have nice dreams. Dreams of her and Lapis living on their farm with plenty of other living pumpkins to love and raise.

Sometimes, even though she knew it wasn’t possible, there would just be her and Lapis and Pumpkin, but with an extra, smaller gem who they would care for. The little gem always looked how she would imagine a fusion between herself and Lapis would look like. She didn’t know why she had that dream, but she didn’t question it since it was such a nice dream.

The very few times she would have a nightmare would always be something that she had experienced before. Usually they would be when her and Steven were seemingly trapped in that drill with the cluster ready to form, or the many terrifying things she had experienced when she was once a fugitive on Earth. Very rarely, though, she would have a nightmare where she would be brought back to Homeworld and put on trial, and eventually executed. Regardless of what nightmare she’d have, Lapis would always hold her very close and would sing to her and let her wipe her tears all over her skirt.

But where was Lapis now? Somewhere out in space where Peridot couldn’t call for her, where she couldn’t reach out and grab her hand, where she couldn’t be swooped into her lap and made to feel safe and loved once again. The pain of Lapis being gone made her feel small, like a very young child, and she hated that. Peridot was always afraid that she wouldn’t ever come back, and that’s what she was sure caused this new nightmare that would pop up more frequently than she liked.

It always started out the same, Peridot would enlist the help of the others to build a ship with the intention of going into space, and they would go looking for Lapis. They would go from planet to planet, looking for any sign of her, until finally they would get to the very last planet.

Peridot would be wandering through, and see the barn in the distance. She’d run as fast as she could over to the barn and tackle Lapis to the ground in a huge hug. Lapis would laugh and hug her back and the two would catch up.

“Lapis you need to come home.” Peridot would say to her. “We miss you,  _ I  _ miss you! I hate waking up every morning in that bathroom, I hate feeling so hopeless every day, I hate wanting to talk to you and realizing that you aren’t there.”

“Peridot…” Lapis would try to interrupt.

But Peridot would continue.

“I need you to be home Lapis, I want to defend our home together, remember? Like I said before you left?”

“Peridot, I can’t, you know that!”

“But you don’t know for sure if something bad will happen!”

“I can’t do this anymore! I can’t keep being caught up in these kinds of things! Every time something good happens to me something bad happens!”

“It won’t this time, I promise!”

Lapis would get up, now transformed into a Lapis that Peridot couldn’t recognize, even though she looked the same.

“No, Peridot! You don’t understand!”

Lapis would try to fly away, and Peridot would grab onto her to make her stop.

“Lapis, please! You want me to be honest, right!? I! AM! A MESS! WITHOUT YOU!”

“LET GO OF ME!”

Lapis would break away, being much stronger than Peridot, and fly away, not even bothering to take the barn with her. Peridot would be left running in her direction, calling out to her and begging for her to change her mind, and then trip and fall into a large crack in the ground, screaming for Lapis to save her.

And then she would wake up.

 


	2. Day 2: Memory Loss

I guess kind of a new idea concerning this, not as unique as the other’s that will be posted later. This one actually made me a little sad. It’s kinda short.

~~~~~

“Lapis!” Steven ran to meet his friend for a hug. “I knew we saw something land here!”

Lapis looked over at the group that had come to meet her...someone was missing.

“Where’s Peridot?” She asked, concerned. Concern turned to fear when she saw the worried looks on the group’s faces. “Was...was she?”

“Oh, no, no!” Pearl assured. “She’s fine, just fine. But…”

She went silent, unsure of how she was going to break the news to Lapis. She looked to the other three before Garnet finally stepped forward.

“She’s erased her memory of you.” She said.

“She what!?” Lapis couldn’t believe it.

“Lapis, you need to understand.” Pearl stepped back in. “She couldn’t handle you leaving as well as she thought she could. She wanted to reverse it when you did come back…”

“So everything’s fine, right?”

Everyone looked at each other uncomfortably. It was better for Lapis to see it for herself than for her to hear it. They brought her to the house on the warp pad. There, sitting at the coffee table on her knees, intensely focused on a drawing, was Peridot. Greg was on the couch watching her, he looked up and smiled at Lapis, followed by Pumpkin appearing from under the table and running to her, yipping excitedly. Peridot, however, looked up and seemed confused at the face that was now brand new to her.

“Who’s that?” She asked, her voice slightly higher than usual.

“This is Lapis.” Amethyst said as though she was talking to a young child. “You remember Lapis, right P-dot?”

Peri shook her head and went back to coloring. Lapis was stunned, she turned back to the group.

“What happened to her?”

“The memory erasure was a little…” Pearl searched for the least harsh word she could use. “Over-saturated. She’s forgotten almost everything about herself, as well as you, and she’s been like this for weeks now.”

“Haven’t you tried to fix it?”

“There’s nothing we can really do. We tried to reverse it but the machine she created is too advanced. She’s the only one who knows how to use it, or at least she was.”

They looked back at Peridot once again, blissfully unaware of the problem she had inadvertently caused. Greg got up from the couch and walked over.

“Maybe you could talk to her,” He suggested. “Spend a little time with her. We were thinking that maybe it’d jog her memory or something.”

The others agreed. Lapis walked over to Peridot and sat next to her, Peridot looked up from her drawing.

“Hi…” She said.

“Uh, hi.” Lapis said, trying to find something to say. “What are you doing?”

“Coloring. See, look. It’s me and Steven and we’re in a spaceship.”

“Oh, that’s...that’s nice.”

“Why are you crying?”

“I used to have a friend that liked to color too.”

“I can be your friend. You can come with us to Funland tomorrow.”

“That’d be nice.”

“Do you wanna color with me?” Peridot slid Lapis a piece of paper and a few crayons.

Lapis blinked away her tears and tried to put on a smile.

“I would, thank you.”


	3. Day 3: Alone

Two blows in a row for Lapis now, she is a bit more easy to pin angst onto though. Poor kid. This one’s short and a bit dark.

~~~~~

Lapis woke up, once again, to nothing but darkness. Each time she fell asleep she woke up with a slight hope that she had never made one of the worst decisions of her life, that it had all been a dream. The darkness felt crushing, suffocating. Quickly she lit up the inside of the barn with her gem, making the place now glow a dull, soulless blue. Tall shadows bent over her, seemingly mocking her.

“Nobody deserves you.” She could almost hear them saying. “You pushed the only people who made you feel normal away. You abandoned the only person you’ve ever felt intense feelings for. You took her home, her life, all for your selfish needs. Now you’re going to be alone. Forever.”

Lapis buried her face in her knees, trying to ignore them.

“You’re an awful person.” They continued. “You’ve hurt people to get your way, you only focus on yourself. You’ve made her afraid of you, she always has been, but you’ve never bothered to take notice.”

“That’s not true!” Lapis screamed into the emptiness, slamming her fists into the wooden floor. “That’s not...true…”

She felt herself beginning to panic, she grabbed her shoulders, breathing heavily. She was losing it, she was going crazy. She had been alone in the past, but she had never been this alone.

“All alone.” The shadows taunted. “All alone. Poor you. Forever and ever.”

Lapis curled into a ball on the floor, silently begging for it all to end. The light from her gem started to fade away, tears flowing steadily, about to cry herself to sleep and begin the cycle once more.

No.

Lapis picked herself up. It was time for this to stop. She stepped outside, gathering her strength and lifting the barn once more. She was going home, she wasn’t going to run away anymore.


	4. Day 4: Separation

This is angst on more of a sort of funny and cute level, and ends on a nice note. So a huge breather after reading how many other fics or seeing how many other images of what for some may be distressing. I’m doing you a favor, no need to thank me though. This also takes place in a human/child AU (they’re in kindergarten (heheheh).

~~~~~

The time-out room, a fate worse than being sent home. Peridot watched as her bestest friend Lapis was carried, kicking and screaming, behind the green door of certain doom by Ms. Garnet. This was her third time in the room this week, that was bad. And at three weeks in a row, that was worse. Ms. Pearl would have to call her mom. After that, Peridot didn’t know. She hoped it wouldn’t be anything bad, she didn’t know what she would do if Lapis wasn’t here. Lapis was the one who made sure that the twins, Brenda and Yasmin, didn’t bother her.

Peridot was smaller than all of her classmates, in addition to being a whole year younger, and the twins took advantage of that. Usually they’d point out a small space that only Peri could fit into, saying that they had lost a toy or something equally important in there, and then push her to go and get it for them. Once Peridot crawled in they’d block her way out until she started crying. But that was before Lapis arrived.

There was talk that Lapis had been to many different schools before this one, but either kept getting time-outs or getting sent home to the point where they kicked her out, and that was only in preschool. It was evident why, Lapis didn’t like to listen to the grown-ups. There didn’t seem to be a reason why, she just didn’t want to do what the adults told her to. Peridot tried to be a good influence on her, but it didn’t always work.

Sadly, the small blonde looked at the painting she had been working on with her friend. It looked like it would never get finished now. Lapis would be kicked out and have to switch schools, she knew it. Slowly she stepped away from the easel and went to a table, deciding she may as well finish that macaroni art she was making for her mom. She was so focused that she almost didn’t notice when Ms. Pearl called for story time. Peridot sat very close to her, far away from the twins, as Ms. Garnet was still guarding the door to the time-out room. Lapis wasn’t backing down this time, Peri hoped that she’d start to give in just a little for the sake of the both of them.

Nap time passed and it was snack time, Peridot did catch a glimpse of Lapis trying to make her escape as Ms. Pearl brought her snack to her. Lapis was in there all day. Peridot didn’t even get to say goodbye to her. As she looked out the window on the drive home, she thought she may as well get used to not having Lapis around anymore.

“Lapis!” Peridot tackled her friend to the ground in a huge hug upon seeing her that next day. “I thought you were gone forever!”

“No, I got into a lot of trouble though.” Lapis said.

“I’m sorry. Next time I’ll get more blue paint before the twins can steal it all.”

“You don’t have to, you didn’t do anything.”

Peridot stopped when she got into the classroom. The painting that she and Lapis had worked so hard on had been ruined, no doubt by the twins. Peri almost started crying, taking it into her hands. Lapis put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay.” She said. “We can make another one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit I kind of made Lapis a brat in this one. I've always thought of the possibility of what she would be like as a little kid, and her being rambunctious and unruly before mellowing out as she grew up always seemed fitting to me.


	5. Day 5: Free Day

I was actually surprised that corruption wasn’t in the prompt list! But this free day gave me the chance to fix that. I had this idea as soon as I saw the announcement. It’s a huge sudden drop after yesterday’s nice plateau.

~~~~~

“Now remember,” Pearl reiterated as the group stepped off of the warp pad. “This corrupted Onyx is extremely dangerous. We don’t want anyone getting bitten.”

“Is that why Steven is wrapped in tin foil?” Peridot asked.

“It’s for his own safety.”

The group split into teams of two, Garnet with Steven, Pearl with Amethyst, and Lapis with Peridot. The plan was to search until sunset and then meet back by the warp pad before it was too dark.

“This thing could be anywhere,” Garnet called out as the teams went their separate ways. “Don’t let your guard down.”

Lapis and Peridot decided to search up high, around the tall mountain that was just a short fly away thanks to Lapis. They searched everywhere that they could think of, but didn’t see any hint of what they were looking for. Hours had passed, it looked like it was getting to be near sunset.

“I’m tired.” Peridot finally said, sitting herself down on a large rock. “I’m sure whatever we’re looking for isn’t even out here, let’s just go home.”

“We can’t stop now.” Lapis said, sitting next to the smaller gem. “It’s too early, Pearl will freak if she knew we quit like this.”

“Ugh…” Peridot flopped against Lapis. “I guess our plans for tonight are ruined, then.”

“No, I’m sure they’re not. It’s not like we had to have some fancy date anyway. Really I would have just been happy cuddling with you in the hammock.”

Lapis leaned over and planted a soft kiss on Peri’s gem, making her blush. The two had been partners for almost a year now and Peridot still couldn’t help but get flustered when Lapis got affectionate.

The moment ended, though, when Peridot sprang straight up.

“I think I saw it!” She yelled, pointing to the face of a cliff in front of them. “I saw it slither up there.”

Peridot ran to the clifface, ready to climb it.

“Uh, Peridot, that doesn’t look stable…” Lapis warned. “Maybe I should just fly us up there.”

“No, no, I’ve got it!” Peridot was already starting up the face as quick as her little legs and arms would let her. “I’m almost there--AH!”

Peridot wobbled as the dirt of the cliff started to come loose. Lapis darted up to her and got her off the cliff just in time, but a sharp pain in her back caused her to lose her balance, and the two fell onto the ground. Lapis moaned and reached behind in a panic to feel her gem, it was cracked, a rock falling from the cliff must have hit it just in the right spot.

“Oh shit…” She said. “Peridot! Go find Steven and the others! Peridot?”

Peridot only answered with loud, pained yelp. Lapis looked over at her to see the Onyx with its fangs sunk into her arm. Peridot cried out again as she threw the creature off of her, stabbing it in the head with nearby stick. The Onyx poofed and Peridot quickly bubbled it and sent it away before collapsing to the ground, holding where it had bit her.

“Peridot!” Lapis rushed over to her and looked the bite over.

Already the two holes looked to be corroded, dark patches were slowly spreading across Peridot’s arm. Peri panted heavily as she shook like a leaf. She grabbed at her gem, wincing as something began to protrude from either side of it. She was corrupting.

“We have to get you to Steven!” Lapis picked her up and looked out off of the mountain. There was no way she could fly them down there now, and they were so high up, how high Lapis didn’t even know.

She had no choice but to walk.

“It’ll be okay.” She said as she started down the path they had carved.

“Lapis…” Peridot whimpered, tears beginning to stream down her face. “It hurts...everything hurts…”

“You’re going to be okay!” Lapis held back her own tears. “You’re going to be fine, just take it easy. Please...you’ll just make it worse.”

Lapis squeezed Peridot close and kept going, despite the fact that the sun was much lower than she thought it was when she last checked. Peridot continued to moan and whimper in pain with Lapis trying hopelessly to calm her. She could get there in time, she knew she could. Soon it was too dark to tell where she was going, but she knew that they were close to the bottom of the mountain, and that was the most important thing right now...besides Peridot, of course.

“Lapis…” Peridot was beginning to sound weaker now, using all of her energy to cling to the blue gem’s shirt.

“We’re almost there.” Lapis assured her, knowing full well that it could actually take longer to get back to the warp.

It got darker, and Lapis had to guess where to go, but she kept going. Time seemed to pass faster than she thought was possible. Peridot continued to try and keep her strength, but she couldn’t even keep her eyes open anymore. Her moans and whimpers were now long, low groans as the pain and weakness overwhelmed her little body.

It was almost pitch black now. Lapis felt her own pain as her physical form began to glitch from exerting herself with a cracked gem, she knew that her crack was getting worse. Her legs shook, she knew this was it, she couldn't push herself any farther. She fell to her knees, her entire body now shaking as well. There was no other sound but the unforgiving wilderness around her, not even Peridot had the energy to continue her groaning, she had stopped quite some time ago.

“Lapis!” Steven’s voice called from the darkness. “Peridot!”

This was followed by the other three calling the same words. Lapis sighed, relieved.

“Peridot…” She said, bringing the little gem to face level. “I told you, you’re going to be okay, you’re…”

Steven jumped at a terrified wail, it sounded like it came from Lapis. The other gems had heard it too, and rushed to where the sound had come from. There was Lapis, crying. Crying and holding what had now become of Peridot.


	6. Day 6: Shards/Shattering

Another human AU, this one gets kinda dark too. It’s also kind of short. It’s also kind of...not good. At least I think it’s in lesser quality than the previous 5.

*****TW/CW: Blood*****

~~~~~

Peridot was woken up by the sound of glass breaking coming from the bathroom. At first she thought it was a burglar but remembered that they lived on the fourth story, and there was no way a burglar could get up there. She began to fall back asleep, when she heard another strange noise. Like someone breathing through their teeth. Curious, she sat up. Lapis wasn’t next to her. Something felt very wrong.

“Lapis?” Peridot knocked on the bathroom door, which was shut and locked. “Lapis, are you okay in there?”

“I-I’m fine…” Lapis’ shaky voice said from behind the door. “I’ll b-be out in a m-minute.”

No, this was wrong. Peridot could feel it, this was wrong. She shook the door.

“Lapis, open this door NOW!”

No answer.

“Lapis!”

To her surprise, the lock of the door clicked. Peridot didn’t wait, she shoved open the door and almost cried out at the sight in front of her. The towel over the mirror on the wall had been ripped down, and the mirror had been smashed. Lapis sat on the toilet, pale and quivering, holding her right hand. The bathtub had blood slowly making its way towards the drain, some tiny shards of the mirror laid on the edge.

“Lapis...did you just…” Peridot squatted in front of her girlfriend and took her face into her hands. Her beautiful blue eyes were full of tears and had dark circles under them.

Peridot didn’t know what to say, Lapis had never been like this, at least to her knowledge. With a sigh she dug the first aid kit out from under the sink and started tending to Lapis’ hand.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“I d-don’t want to talk about it…” Lapis sounded a little more stable, but was still coming down from her panic attack. “I’m sorry, I j-just…”

“It’s fine...I’m sorry if I scared you by shaking the door.” Peri finished and led Lapis back to the bed. “I’ll go clean up the mess, okay?”

“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I don’t know what happened. A corner of the towel came down, just enough so I could see myself, and…”

Lapis was stopped by a sudden hug, Peridot held her head close to her chest so she could hear her heartbeat.

“You’re okay.” Peridot whispered. “You’re safe here, they can’t hurt you anymore.”

She decided to clean it up in the morning, and laid down next to Lapis, still holding her head on her chest. She tried to stay awake in case Lapis had any further trouble, but ended up falling asleep before she did. The next morning when she woke up, the bathroom had already been cleaned, and Lapis seemed to be more at ease than Peridot had ever seen her.


	7. Day 7: Captured

Fun fact: Days 1, 3, and 7 are all connected. I’m really glad I participated in this project, I usually don’t put out my writing like this. I want to give out a big thank you to everyone who liked and/or reblogged my posts. Maybe I’ll put out more writing stuff in the future, but for now I think I’m gonna take a small break.

~~~~~

Somewhere in the distance there was a faint conversation. Peridot couldn’t see where it came from. Actually, she couldn’t see anything at all. Everything was blurred together, and moved in a scraggled mess, she couldn’t even see her hand right in front of her face. Her head hurt, and she knew why, she just didn’t want to think about it. She couldn’t stand, everything felt like it was moving without her and made her feel an awful sensation in her abdomen. So she leaned against the wall of her cell and listened to the barely audible voices somewhere to her right. Soon sitting became too much for her to handle. She slid down the wall until she was laying on the cold, hard floor, trying to find a comfortable position.

There was no one else with her, she had felt around for somebody, anybody with whom she could spend her last moments. She was sure they were all gone now, shattered. She could feel her energy lessen with every passing minute. The voices came closer, passed her cell, and faded away. Silence. Nothing else to hear but the ship making its way through the galaxy towards Homeworld. Peridot closed her eyes and felt a lump in her throat, but no tears came, she was too exhausted to cry. To think that just a few hours ago, it was a normal day.

The sun was shining, the ocean was the perfect temperature, she and Steven has expertly molded damp sand into small castle. But they only had a few minutes to admire it before Pumpkin came bounding through, playing chase with a shapeshifted Amethyst, and ruined it. Steven assured Peridot that they could make another, bigger and better, and they did. Afterwards they sat in the surf, the waves wrapping around their waists like the earth was giving them a friendly hug, and then Peridot had allowed Steven and Amethyst to lead her in up to her ches. Later after they were dry they went to the boardwalk. Steven and Amethyst got ice cream and Peridot got fries to feed to Pumpkin. Then they decided to go and check on their flower garden.

That was when things had gone south.

At first Peridot was happier than she had ever been to see Lapis again, but something was very off. Lapis was standing in the middle of the ruined garden, trying to convey something to the three without words. She was uneasy and looked like someone had been dragging her from planet to planet, which is exactly what the hunter gems had been doing before they caught on to Lapis’ silent warnings and realized they had the right place. Before Peridot could blink someone grabbed her from behind, she tried to struggle free but a destabilizer struck her across the face, breaking her visor and sending a sharp pain from the top of her head and down her back. Another hit and she was knocked out, and woke up in this cell.

Once she realized where she was and that she was alone a number of questions raced through her mind. Where were the others? What had happened to them? Did Pearl and Garnet know they were gone? Or had they been taken too? Was Pumpkin still on earth? Was she okay? Where was Lapis?

Lapis.

Suddenly she had become focused on her.

Lapis, who had been used once again. This time to hurt her friends. She had been found out, her running away didn’t work. If only Peridot had gone with her she would have helped Lapis take down the gems that had hunted her down. If only Peridot had tried harder to convince her to stay this wouldn’t have happened at all, they would have had the others on their side, they could have taken them down together.

Where was Lapis?

She became fixated on that question.

Where was Lapis?

“Stop! You got what you wanted! Please, I’m not of any further use to you!”

There was Lapis.

Peridot gathered enough strength to lift her head. The shield of her cell went down for a moment, Lapis cried out as her body hit the ground. The shield went back up and whoever was carrying Lapis left without a word.

“Peridot!”

Peri felt herself being picked up and squeezed close, she snuggled into Lapis’ shoulder and forced her hands to grab onto the taller gem’s wrist.

“Peridot I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, about everything.” Lapis sobbed. “This is all my fault.”

“No, it’s not.” Peri squeaked out. “It’s my fault. I should have tried harder.”

“No, I pushed you away, I abandoned you, I made you afraid of me…”

“I’m not afraid of you, who said I was?”

“It’s...it’s nothing.” Lapis took a moment to gather herself. “I was about to come home before they got me. I guess I should have come home sooner. Or...I shouldn’t really have left at all.”

“Yeah, who would have thought a big barn floating through space would have gotten someone’s attention?”

Lapis made a tiny snort and Peridot knew she was smiling, she couldn’t help but smile too.

“Really though,” Lapis continued. “I should have listened to you. I did something really stupid.”

“I’m just glad you’re here. Whatever Homeworld does with us, I’m just glad that I get to be with you before it happens. I...I missed you, a lot.” Peri felt her eyes sting with fresh tears. “I was a mess without you, I’ll admit it. Steven and Amethyst helped a lot but...when you left, a huge piece of me left too. Agh! That sounds so stupid when it doesn’t come from Percy!”

Lapis snorted louder and squeezed Peridot a little tighter.

“I know what you mean.” She said. “I felt like I was gonna go crazy too. I guess we both kind of need each other.”

Their joy quickly diminished, here they were talking like they weren’t about to be shipped off to their certain deaths. Peridot felt the tears more strongly now. This was just like in that nightmare. Lapis knew this too, as she gently patted her skirt against the smaller one’s face, singing very soft and just loud enough for her to hear. But her voice made slight quivers, she couldn’t keep herself from crying either. Slowly, gently, she took off Peri’s visor and ran a hand through her hair.

———

“Peridot?” A familiar voice called. “Peridot, are you okay? Can you hear me?”

“Steven?”

“She’s okay!”

Peridot groaned and rubbed her head, her gem had been healed some time ago, her vision coming back more and more now that she was awake. She was now laying in Steven’s bed back at the house. A dream? Was it all a dream?

“Lapis?” Peridot reached out next to her and to her surprise did feel a soft, slender hand.

“I’m right here.” Lapis said. Peridot turned and saw that she could see her face now, smiling at her.

“How are you feeling?” Pearl appeared from behind Lapis. “You were in awful shape when we found you two. It’s a good thing we got you to Steven when we did.”

Pearl frowned a little and licked her thumb to wipe away a smear of dirt on Peridot’s cheek. Peridot couldn’t pull away fast enough.

“Go get ‘em, girl!” Amethyst yelled from downstairs. Pumpkin excitedly barked and launched herself onto the bed, licking both of her moms. The happy little family was whole once again.

“The barn!” Peridot remembered. “What about the barn!?”

“Don’t worry, it’s back in its place.” Pearl assured.

“You think I’d leave our home all the way in space?” Lapis said.

Everyone laughed. After Peridot was absolutely sure that she was alright, she and Lapis and Pumpkin went home. The three went up to the truck bed and Peri got the television working once more. The familiar routine of watching Camp Pining Hearts until Lapis and Pumpkin fell asleep was a blanket of comfort for Peridot, who followed it up with the routine of turning off the television and quietly scrolling through Tweeter, and then waking up Lapis to watch the sunrise.

And that was when Peridot was sure that she wasn’t still asleep.


End file.
